Vanguard has overtaken State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR exchange-traded fund unit as the second largest ETF provider in the US for the first time.

The Pennsylvania-based fund manager edged out SPDR with $345.5 billion in ETF assets at the end of February, according to consultancy ETFGI, compared with the Boston-based firm’s $344.6 billion.

Those figures include only assets under management in ETFs, not exchange-traded products broadly, so they exclude SPDR’s well-known gold product. The gold product, called SPDR Gold Shares, has a trust structure and is classified as an exchanged-traded product, not an ETF under the consultancy’s methodology.

Vanguard’s movement up the league table, and the small difference in ETF assets under management, underscores the competitiveness of a growing industry in which the top three providers control more than 80% of the $1.6 trillion in US assets.

Both Vanguard and SPDR each control 21% of US ETF assets. The largest provider is BlackRock’s iShares, which controls 40% of the US ETF market.

In the first two months of the year, Vanguard enjoyed $8 billion of net flows into its US ETFs, according to ETFGI, helping it to climb the league table. Meanwhile, investors pulled $19.1 billion from SPDR ETFs in the US during the period.

Kevin Quigg, global head of ETF strategy and consulting at SPDR, said the firm typically sees inflows into its large S&P 500 ETF in the fourth quarter and outflows from that product in the first quarter.

Quigg said of the rankings broadly: “All of our products are considered part of the SPDR family of ETFs. We and the market place at large haven’t seen things the same way [as the rankings].”

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A spokesman for Vanguard declined to comment on the flows, citing a policy of not doing so, but said the fund manager is “pleased with the growth we have seen so far.”

Vanguard has gained popularity – and assets – for its lower-cost ETFs that have put pressure on rivals.

The firm has also been successful at snapping up cash in the broader mutual fund space. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index fund became the largest fund by assets late last year, according to Morningstar, overtaking Pimco’s Total Return Fund. It remained the largest mutual fund globally at the end of January with $262.99 billion in assets.

In the broader rankings of US ETP providers – including the gold product – SPDR kept its number two ranking with $378.9 billion in assets and a 21.9% market share to Vanguard’s $345.5 billion and 20% market share. In this table, iShares ended February with $671.3 billion in assets and a 38.9% market share.